For days and weeks—each morning after getting up and each night before brushing my teeth—I stood in front of the bathroom mirror with this pencil under my tongue sounding like a kid killing the machine-gun sound effects.

Pro-Gaddafi forces launched a renewed assault Friday on the opposition-controlled western city of Zawiya, where a resident said the city had come under attack with shells and machine-gun fire at 11 a.m. local time.